DUNGEON - BELLMARE ENCLAVE (BELLMARE MOUNTAINS, PT 2)

[phantasmods]

The shadows are starting to grow very long as you crest his particular ridge - it's not night yet, but it will be soon. In the shadows of the afternoon, with a tall mountain already blocking the sun, lies a snow-covered valley that is different from the ones you've come across thus far in your investigation.

This valley is home to a town, and unlike all the settlements you've seen so far - Incendia, the Telovia mining town, and the manor - it's very much active. There are actual people in the streets, visible from above, going through their days on snow-free streets, bundled up against the cold.

Those of you who asked were told of the handful of people who didn't go into the slumber of stasis as the Fissure conditions of the world grew worse and worse, instead isolating themselves and trying to continue living their lives as they could. Now, it seems, you've found exactly such a group.

Welcome to the Bellmare Enclave, and enjoy your stay.

[[OOC: Welcome to part 2 of the dungeon! For the most part, interaction with the town's NPCs can be handwaved as described on the main information post. Worth noting are the following major things: The Bellmare Enclave isn't expecting visitors, though the people are generally friendly to the new arrivals. They don't know about the time dilation effect of their Fissure - to them, it's only been about eighteen years since the Slumber Plan was put in place and they withdrew from the world. And finally, by a similar token, they have no idea how far the Fissures outside of their own have grown - while it's not uncommon for them to find odd objects from time to time, they'll assume that the characters are just arrivals from other places within their own world, rather than outsiders, until told otherwise.]]

Comments

[kingkingcxiii]

[Regis almost pushes Izunia away. It's not a slight, merely an instinctive reaction. He's only allowed two people to see him like this and neither is here, neither is still among the living and that is just more grief to pile onto his shoulders--one loss much newer than the other, both still his fault.

What good is the power that let him protect a whole city when it didn't keep his wife's life from slipping from his fingers? What good is the ability to call weapons and magic to his grasp in an instant when it didn't allow him to keep his oldest friend from being cut down in front of him?

What good is any of it when in the end his son will never have the chance to live in the world everything was sacrificed to save?

There were days when the walls were all that kept him able to speak of the future with any kind of positivity, to keep confidence in it when he knew just what its cost would be. Without them, he is well on his way to finding out if it is truly possible to cry oneself out of tears.

Distantly, he knows that Izunia is speaking to him, humming a tune that Regis doesn't know if he should recognize or not. Both are things that feel as if they are happening a world away, things his mind doesn't really have the energy to deal with right now, so he doesn't, placing it all away to be dealt with later when he doesn't feel as if every fear, pain, and guilt-ridden feeling he's ever had has been exposed for the whole world to see.

Eventually the sobs and tears stop, though the stillness of the exhaustion that follows really doesn't help the feeling of vulnerability that settles over him. The flood of emotion has slowed, but it is still far too near the surface for his liking, far too easy for others to see and to touch without the walls between it and them.

Regis knows he should say something, but he is not quite ready yet and so he remains silent just a little longer, turning his head into Izunia's shoulder and taking several slow, long breaths as he begins piecing himself back together.]

[founderinglight]

[Except that this is a person who has seen it, whether or not it was something Regis consciously chose to allow. Such is the burden of kings, once they assume the throne - 'you no longer have privacy' isn't just a matter of the media watching your every move.

But there's not judgement and there never has been, because there are some things in life that shouldn't come with conditions.

And so he remains, with an arm around his descendant's shoulders, and when Regis begins to calm and breathe instead of shaking his shoulders with sobs, he just keeps humming until they've both steadied out a bit. His own voice is a bit raw with something, a vulnerability to his family in pain.]

The good thing about retirement is that it's a time to take care of all those things you put away for duty. That includes your heart, Regis.

[kingkingcxiii]

[There is a long moment of silence where it's unclear if Regis is ignoring what Izunia has said or if he's just not ready to speak yet, then he makes a soft, dismissive sound, one almost completely muffled by the Founder King's shoulder. Fortunately, Regis does turn his face out from Izunia's shoulder before speaking. Between the fact he is all but whispering and the hoarseness from his tears, it would have been quite difficult to make out his words otherwise.]

We both know the real issue is that I never fully put my heart away no matter how much it hurt not to.